What you don't read in the newspapers

Main Menu

Behind the scenes:

The following e-mail comes from Mark Sanford’s sister, Sarah, and addressed to former SC state representative, Edie Rodgers. Very interesting….

—-Original Message —-

Hi Edie,

Thank you for the phone message yesterday.

You’re right This is a very, very unusual campaign and unlike any with which I’ve been involved. No issues, no attacks, no public presence at all from the Bostic Campaign … as Shannon Erickson noted yesterday, Councilman Bostic didn’t come to her forum, nor has he shown up at most of the candidates’ forums throughout the entire race.

Yet he’s waging a spirited — if unorthodox — campaign.

I’ve heard from as far away as Greenville (a huge evangelical church there from which the Bostic Campaign has requested phone calls and additional vans) exactly what the Bostic Campaign is doing. They are working in many evangelical churches, and they have the respective church leaderships organizing vanloads of their parishioners going to the Board of Elections all this week to vote early. They’re keeping the vans through Election Day next Tuesday. In Beaufort, they are working with several large churches — one is the Community Bible Church in Shell Point (a man I know there said he was going to vote for another candidate in the primary, but had been told directly by his pastor to vote for Bostic.) There are lots of others of these very large churches up in Charleston, Mount Pleasant, and North Charleston that they’re working with as well.

I don’t mind that various candidates have bases in the churches. That’s the nature of democracy: race, religion and gender always play a role in voting preferences. But I find it appalling that Mr. Bostic’s sole focus is on these particular churchgoers. If he wins on Tuesday, and goes on to win the general, will he represent the whole district, or just those who attend the evangelical churches? And why has he been unwilling to attend forums for voters like us to ask him questions and get to know him?

What little he’s permitted the electorate to know about him, and he way he’s run his campaign, certainly suggests he has made a bargain with and will owe his election to the evangelical churches only.

Believe me, I have no issue with these churches — I was educated by one and have been a faith-based homeschooling mother myself. My issue is with the secret dealmaking with only one special interest group and ignoring the general voting population. It’s exactly what’s going on daily in Washington.

I tell people, and I urge you to also, do not be lulled into complacency by the silence. Many people have told me how excited they are for Mark — as if there is not election on Tuesday! Choosing not to vote — or forgetting — or simply being complacent is, in fact, a vote for Mr. Bostic who is a wealthy, formidable, and secretive candidate. (I’m sure you say in The Post and Courier that candidate Ray Nash endorsed Mark. One reason quoted was because Mark Sanford had been at all the forums and was transparent and willing to answer any questions and that Curtis Bostic had been the opposite.)

The Bostic Campaign is a classic stealth campaign, and Mark will need every vote he can get on Tuesday to advance to the general election. Please spread the word!